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During the SR-388 incident, Samus Aran is ordered by the Galactic Federation to exterminate the remaining Metroids on SR388, so they could no longer be used as weapons by the Space Pirates. She encounters several stages of the creatures on her mission, eventually defeating the Queen Metroid in Area 8. In the chamber behind the Queen, Samus comes across a single Metroid Egg, the last remaining of the species. It hatches as she approaches, and as she was the first thing that it saw, the Metroid imprints on Samus as its unwitting adoptive mother. Taken by surprise at its docile nature, Samus finds herself unable to destroy the hatchling. Disobeying her orders, she spares its life, taking it with her back to her Gunship. Along the way, the infant helps Samus by carving out otherwise indestructible crystals as it orbits around its adopted parent.

In the remake Samus Returns, Samus cautiously charges her Ice Beam as soon as the baby hatches, but to her surprise, the newborn Metroid does not attack her. The camera briefly shifts to Samus's point of view where she sees the baby through her Combat Visor. Seeing that the baby is docile and now an orphan, not unlike Samus herself, she deactivates the Ice Beam's charge and holds out her hand to the baby, which accepts Samus as its mother. Samus decides to spare the baby and take it with her despite it being against protocol. The baby has a slightly larger role in the remake, where it can travel with Samus throughout SR388 to eat the various crystals that she previously could not get through, to obtain expansions and go through other previously inaccessible routes, most importantly the one leading from Area 8 to the Surface. When Samus stands still, the baby makes its iconic screeching sounds.

Proteus Ridley seeking to capture the baby in Samus Returns

As it is about to depart from SR388 with Samus, it ends up being threatened by Proteus Ridley, sporting cybernetics from earlier events. Having apparently come to the planet to stop Samus from exterminating the entire Metroid population, Ridley arrives too late to prevent the destruction of the Queen and the rest of the Metroid population, though by sparing the last Metroid, it becomes a prime target for Proteus Ridley who aims to claim the infant for the Space Pirates and their restored leader Mother Brain in order to clone it and continue their use of Metroids as bioweapons. Ridley attempts to abduct the baby before Samus attacks him. The Pirate then manages to grab the baby with his mechanical claw, prompting Samus to fight him. After suffering enough damage, Ridley decides to flee with the baby instead of fighting Samus further, but Samus blasts into him with her thrusters and attacks his vulnerable chest, which causes him to release the baby. The baby flies off and floats near the Gunship in the second phase of the battle. Eventually, after Ridley pins Samus down, the baby defends its adoptive mother by proceeding to sap energy from Ridley to distract him and get him off of her, which allows Samus to avoid getting killed. Additionally, the baby also gifts the energy it saps from Ridley to Samus, bolstering her stamina enough to keep fighting. The baby continues to aid Samus in this manner for the rest of the fight allowing the pair to defeat Ridley and leaves SR388 on Samus' Gunship.

Unfortunately, Ridley survives the encounter, discards his cybernetic arm and escapes SR388 before it is overrun by the resurgent X Parasites.

Samus drops the larva off at Ceres Space Colony, where it is to be examined by Federation scientists. They discover that the Metroid's powers could be harnessed for the good of mankind: as Samus discovered in the battle with Proteus Ridley, a Metroid can not only siphon energy, but transfer it into other organisms. Shortly after she departs, the colony falls victim to a Space Pirate raid, led by Ridley. Samus receives its distress signal, and arrives in time to see Ridley depart, holding the baby in its capsule. Though she tries to kill him, she fails and Ridley flees the station after programming it to explode. Both Samus and Ridley escape in time to avoid the destruction of the station.

Samus pursues her enemy to the rebuilt base on Zebes, where she destroys everything in her path in search of the hatchling. Some time after, she finds Ridley and kills him, however, the capsule that had encased the infant is found broken, with the baby nowhere to be found. During her struggles on Zebes, the Pirates in Tourian use beta-radiation to make it multiply, much like their original operations in Metroid. They also use an unknown technology that creates unsuccessful clones from it, known as Mochtroids, which are placed in Maridia.

In Tourian, Samus finds dried husks of a Torizo and some Zoomers, Rippers, and Skrees in two of the later rooms. She then watches as a Blue Sidehopper meets the same fate at the hands of a Big Metroid. It then turns on Samus, siphoning her health to within an inch of her life before finally recognizing its victim as its "mother" when her suit's low-energy alarm sounded. After a few shrieks reminiscent of its squeaks while it was still an infant, the baby flees the room in shame, leaving Samus behind, who realizes that it was the baby. Samus continues on through the base to fight Mother Brain, who, after being defeated transforms into an enormous cyborg monster, weakening Samus with the Laser Brain Attack until she can no longer stand. As the biomechanical menace prepares the final blast, the baby darts in and latches onto Samus's attacker, siphoning her energy to the point where Mother Brain is a brittle husk. Leaving her behind, the enormous Metroid heals Samus, transferring the energy it stole from Mother Brain into her.

However, Mother Brain was still alive. Somehow recovering quickly, she rises in a vengeful fury, firing upon the baby as it gives its life-energy to save Samus. After fully healing Samus, the baby turns its attention back to Mother Brain; however, it had been badly injured by the pounding it had taken earlier, noticeable in the decrease in the vibrancy of its colouring. The baby rushes at Mother Brain to attack once again, only for Mother Brain to shoot it down, finishing it off. As Samus stands to re-enter the battle, she witnesses the baby, the last natural Metroid from SR388, let out one final shriek and explode into many particles over her, falling over her like snow. As she mourns the baby, she discovers it had left her with one final gift - Mother Brain's ultimate weapon, the Hyper Beam. Enraged, and holding nothing back, Samus unleashes the Hyper Beam on Mother Brain, laying waste to the Space Pirate operations once and for all and avenging her fallen "child". She then escapes from Planet Zebes after Mother Brain's final destruction triggers a planet-wide self-destruct sequence. Samus escapes, falling into depression over the baby's demise.

Its role in the Super Metroid comic was more or less the same, though Mother Brain was shown to have tried and failed to convince it that she was its true mother, not Samus. Also, instead of depicting the ingame death, Chief Hardy shot the baby, mistaking it for another Metroid clone, although an oblivious Samus still blames Mother Brain for the baby's death. Armstrong Houston theorizes in the final issue that that the reason for the Metroid's size was due to it being "exposed to massive levels of beta rays" by the Mother Brain.

Not even a fragment... None of the baby remained on me. I knew it to be true but still couldn't help looking at my palm for a sign. Never again would I encounter the baby. Never. The finality of it struck me once again.

„

—Samus Aran

The baby restores Samus' energy shielding.

A 3-D version of the baby was featured in the Metroid: Other M intro. It is seen giving energy to Samus before it was destroyed by the Laser Beam Attack fired by Mother Brain, recreating its final moments in Super Metroid. Throughout the scene, it is shown carrying Samus in the air while restoring her energy as if it were carrying a corpse. It can be heard screaming as it dies. When it dies, it destabilizes into many particles over Samus, that rain over her like snow and somehow gift her with the Hyper Beam. How it does so is unknown, as Samus does not flash as she did in Super Metroid when she gets the Hyper Beam. It is possible that the Hyper Beam's energy was gifted to Samus when she caught one of the particles in her palm, or was given to her while the baby was restoring her energy. Her visor flashes bright green, turning opaque, before she lets loose the Hyper Beam on Mother Brain. During cutscenes at the beginning of the game, Samus remembers the baby and makes references to it, feeling guilt over how she did not protect it as it protected her.[12]

During the training given in the beginning, Samus feels that the baby did not just give her the Hyper Beam after death, but perhaps enhanced her abilities.

The Baby's Cry distress signal that Samus picks up from the BOTTLE SHIP reminds her of the baby and causes her to believe that it was crying for her.

When the 07th Platoon and Samus reach the Exam Center, she reflects on Adam and his strong hatred toward bioweapons, and states that bringing the baby back was something that she knew would have gone against Adam's convictions, and "though [she] might have been left alone, it was a clear and blatant violation of protocol." This is the only time in the game where she refers to it as the "Infant Metroid".

Later in the game, MB reveals to Samus that fragments of the baby were taken off of Samus and used to create a Queen Metroid that she later fights and kills, and the Metroids hatched by it were genetically engineered into unfreezable Metroids and stored in Sector Zero, a recreation of Tourian. She enters the sector and sees another infant Metroid. This gives her a flashback of the baby's hatching, though she realizes she must kill this Metroid due to her earlier thoughts about Adam. Just before she can, Adam shoots her to weaken her (and thus keep her from entering Sector Zero), but he then kills the Metroid before it can drain Samus' energy.

Near the end of the game, The Colonel asks Samus to restrict herself because of her "predilection for transporting illegal cargo, like infant Metroids", referring to Samus' beliefs that bringing the baby back would be considered a use of bioweapons. She can be seen looking at him with an angry expression, indicating either shame or anger towards him.

The game's commercial recreates the baby's birth and death, which Samus looks at as she is walking through moments of her past.

Her Varia Suit could not be removed normally while she was unconscious due to its integration with her nervous system, so parts of it had to be surgically removed. Her chances of survival were very low, until one scientist proposed creating the Metroid vaccine, from surviving DNA of the baby. The vaccine was a success, removing all traces of the X from her system. It also helped to create the Fusion Suit, which made Samus more Metroid-like, now weak to cold temperatures and attacks but able to absorb the previously deadly X Parasites to restore energy and ammunition. The Federation eventually came to realize that the Metroids were the main predators of the X and their eradication and Baby's removal from the planet had lead to the X becoming the dominant life form on SR388, infecting various animals. Samus remarked that this was not the first time the baby had saved her life; the deceased baby now being within her forever.

The baby's DNA was also used again in another secret breeding program by the Galactic Federation, cloning new Metroids and producing the later stages of the natural life cycle up to the Omega Metroid level; this was achieved by reproducing said planet's environment in Sector 1 (SRX). Samus had this section of the ship detached, destroying the cloned Metroids and the SA-X that had followed Samus into the lab. Samus later killed the remaining Omega Metroid that bred outside of it before she rammed the entire complex into the Metroid and X Parasite homeworld. A new "ultimate warrior", Samus carries the last of the Metroid DNA from the baby, acting as a single fusion of the two greatest products of the Chozo civilization. However is unclear if the destruction of the Restricted Lab and Omega Metroid was truly the end of the Federation's Metroid breeding program or if others exist, thus more clones of Baby may exist.

Xenome Containment Units in Metroid Prime often contain Metroids and resemble the containment tank of the baby on Ceres. The baby is also present on a texture for a Space Pirate terminal in the game code. Whether or not it is used in-game is unknown, but highly unlikely.[13] It did appear in a 2001 trailer.[14]

Certain corpses on SkyTown and the G.F.S. Valhalla will crumble to dust if shot, referencing the corpses of the various species that were killed by the baby.

"What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos look like little Metr—" Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.

The Scientists - A scientist and two boys study the baby. One of the boys volunteers to wear it as a hat, only to be leeched of his energy.

The Scientists Cont. - The scientist and the other boy decide to turn the baby upside down and use it as a salad bowl. However, it starts to eat the salad, and so they propose using it as a garbage disposal.

I Don't Wanna Work! - Someone at Ceres calls Samus to aid them. In the background, Ridley can be seen flying away with the baby.

She Sure Likes O - Samus sits next to a Save Station talking to her commander. He asks her why she is taking a break when anything could be happening to the baby. She realizes he is right and then sets out.

Little Baby - Samus tells two scientists about the baby's bond with her. One states that it looks exactly like her, and an enraged Samus burns him to a crisp.

Find the Baby!! - Samus orders Mother Brain to hand the baby over. Below the panel is a puzzle featuring many Metroids, challenging the reader to find the baby.

Going to Bed - Samus turns her television off and locks the door, before turning the light off and going to bed. The baby is in a bowl, chirping.

The baby appeared in at least two gag strips in the Japanese strategy guide. One strip had it shirking away while Samus, clad in a bath towel and wet with her clothes hanging on a clothesline, glares at it while it protests and claims innocence. Another has Samus wearing the upper portion of her armor looking down at the baby, with the caption "unmarried woman."

The baby serves largely the same role as in the games, although with a few differences, including an exclusive scene where the Mother Brain is futilely attempting to convince the baby that she, not Samus, is its mother. The most notable difference is how it is killed: Unlike in the game where Mother Brain is the one who killed the baby in retaliation for draining her and restoring Samus, the baby was shot by Chief Hardy as it attempted to aid Samus due to him mistaking it for another Metroid (largely because of its massive size), although Samus nonetheless held Mother Brain responsible for its death.

Ridley holding the baby in the Melee intro. (gif can be seen here [3])

The intro for Super Smash Bros. Melee has a scene that appears to depict the fight between Samus and Ridley on Ceres. The baby, in its capsule, can be seen in Ridley's talons. Part of the intro image for Super Metroid can be seen on the reflection of the Metroid trophy, minus the capsule. This may imply that the Trophy is representing the hatchling.

A possible reference to the baby is seen in the Catch Mode of Tetris DS, where falling Metroids in capsules similar to the baby's are an obstacle.

Sounds made by the Pokémon Cyndaquil are similar to the baby's in Super Metroid and Metroid: Samus Returns.

The baby also appears in Animal Crossing: Wild World, City Folk, and New Leaf. The Metroid item in the three games is based on the baby, and features it in its signature capsule. In New Leaf, interacting with the capsule causes it to emit the Baby Metroid's chirps and the music featured on the Title Screen in Metroid: Other M.

"A dream - I was reliving the tragic moments of my recent past. The Baby Metroid that had emerged from its egg in front of me so long ago was protecting me from the assault of Mother Brain. It would sacrifice its life to save me, and in doing so, give me the power of the Hyper Beam that would spell Mother Brain's doom."

"You only ever see one Metroid Hatchling, but for fans of the original Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, and Metroid: Other M, this particular Metroid is all too memorable. One of the most important creatures in the series (at least in how much its presence affects Samus), the Metroid Hatchling starts off small and quite harmless—cute, even. But big things come in small packages, as those who’ve played through Super Metroid will recall."

Yes, Samus calls Mother Brain simply Mother in the introduction, but I would not over-interpret this. I just felt that letting Samus shout "Mother!" instead of "Mother Brain!" would sound more natural. But when it comes to the baby, it's different. I didn't want Samus to think of it as Baby Metroid or anything like that – it's simply the baby. I also told the people localizing that they should stick with simply "baby" and not add anything. I put particular emphasis on the translated term having the same meaning as "baby".

Samus states that "only special infants have the genetic coding to become Queens". This means that, as the Queen Metroid in Other M is an exact clone of the baby, the baby would have grown into a Queen if left on SR388. This would also explain why it was the last Metroid to be found on the planet, as it was a replacement Queen.

Samus is referred to as "The Hatchling" by the Chozo of Tallon IV, foreshadowing her "fusion" with the baby's remains later on.

The baby's internal nuclei turn purple as Mother Brain damages it in Super Metroid. This also seems to occur in the flashback in Other M, although it is not as noticeable. This does not happen to any other Metroids, although the Omega Metroid fought at the end of Metroid Fusion changes colour to blue and then pink the more Samus damages it.

In Other M, the baby's Big Metroid form is much smaller than in Super Metroid. In Other M it is only about 1 or 2 sizes bigger than Samus and does not take up a lot of space, while in Super Metroid it was much larger and took up a lot of the room.

In Other M, although the baby restores Samus' energy, it does not seem to repair the physical damage to her suit as it is still shown to have burn and scratch marks in various areas, and Samus still needs to rest for a long period afterwards, suggesting that the baby's restorative abilities did little more than restore the suit's energy. However, Samus does note that it may have enhanced her abilities slightly: "I wondered if this, too, was a result of the power the baby gave me."

When the baby hatches, the on-screen Metroid Detector does not rise up to "1" in Metroid II: Return of Samus or Metroid: Samus Returns. Neither game offers an explanation for this, and it is the only Metroid in the game to avoid detection by the radar; the energy signature emitting from the baby may be too small for the detector, unlike the larger Metroids encountered earlier in the game.

In Return of Samus, if Samus meets the baby and returns to the Queen's room, the baby will not follow her. However, if she returns to its chamber, it will seem to squeal with delight when it sees that she has returned. This does not happen in Metroid: Samus Returns.

The reason the baby does not mutate into a new stage was to be explained in a scan (written by Matt Manchester) found in the room Metroid Processing in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, but did not make it into the final game. Because the Metroid is on Zebes instead of SR388, the climate and atmosphere of Zebes let the Metroid grow to gigantic size without evolving. This would have also explained why other Metroids on Zebes during the Zero Mission did not transform. The Metroids in Metroid Fusion which were created from the DNA of the baby did mutate however, because the BSL recreated the environment of SR388. It is believed that the reason for the baby's size was also due to constant exposure to beta rays because of the Super Metroid comic adaptation.

The Metroid series has borrowed many elements from the Alien film series. Due to this, it is highly possible that the baby was inspired by the character Newt from the film Aliens. In Aliens, Ellen Ripley rescues Newt from hiding on Acheron LV-426. Newt was the last survivor of the colony, and escaped the planet with Ripley. Like the baby, Newt dies in the sequel, Alien3, when her cryochamber crashes into the ocean on Fiorina "Fury" 161 and fills with water, causing her to drown before she can regain consciousness. Just like Samus, Ripley also feels devastated about letting Newt die after rescuing her. Also similar to the baby, memories of Newt have a role in Alien Resurrection (albeit only in deleted scenes).

The baby in Metroid Fusion may also reference the Alien Queen embryo that Ripley was impregnated with in Alien3, which dies along with Ripley in Fury 16's blast furnace, and in Alien Resurrection is extracted from the Ripley clone, leaving behind DNA which turns Ripley into an Alien/Human hybrid similar to Samus and the baby.

Other M is the first game and occurrence in English media where the Metroid is called "baby". It was previously called "baby" in Japanese media. It being called "Baby" in the localization was due to direct input from Yoshio Sakomoto, telling them that he wanted it simply called "the baby" and strictly telling them not to add anything else because it had the same connotations.

In Super Metroid, it is possible, but very difficult, to evade the baby's attack in Tourian. If a difficult Shinespark is pulled, Samus can proceed into the next room with her energy intact. Additionally, a slower method of avoiding it is to take advantage of the AI provided to it by the SNES and repeatedly jump over it while it swoops under Samus, which is a trick used by some speedrunners.

A glitch can occur if Samus escapes the room while the Big Metroid is attached to her. If she makes it out with barely any energy, she will be trapped in the next room in her low-energy animation (kneeling on the ground and panting). Since the baby is not programmed to be in this room to recognize her and flee, enabling Samus to stand up and continue, she will be stuck here unless the file is restarted.

Under the Super Metroid section of The Metroid Legacy, it erroneously stated that the baby died after Mother Brain had been destroyed by Samus via the Hyper Beam, when it had actually died before Samus destroyed Mother Brain (and in fact its death was the reason why Samus even had the means to destroy the Space Pirate leader).

On the Samus Data Screen in Metroid: Samus Returns, the baby will appear in the cockpit of Samus's Gunship when a completed file is selected, carelessly floating around and squealing.

The quote "the baby", repeated ad nauseam throughout the opening of Other M, became a meme within the Metroid fan community.